Stand Alone Complex

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

So here's a funny story! A little bit more than a month ago, My Facebook page reached the hefty milestone of 5000 subscribers. I thought to myself "Golly! What a thing! I should commemorate this by drawing something special!"So I had this idea for a another Pencil Adventure comic that I wanted to do, so I started it, thinking it would be done in no time. But over time, the idea got grander, the setup for the joke became more complicated, and the artwork for the concept needed to be upped and upped and upped, to make the whole thing seem worthwhile. Suddenly this silly idea for a short comic became this 7 page concept piece that merely housed a joke. The joke was even added upon by my friend Amy (she came up with the closing punch line, props to her) and to top it all off, about 5 pages into it, I started to think about how this was all going to interconnect to the greater TransCat narrative!So here we are now, more than a month later. My little gag comic is now commemorating 7645 Facebook subscribers and is not officially cannon.

There we other distraction as well. I mean, I'm pretty lazy, but I'd like to think there were other mitigating factors in this comic taking so long other than that. I guess first and most obvious is the Holiday Season. Chrimbus and New Years were kind of a big deal. or at least they WOULD have been, if I wasn't breathing snot the whole time! Oh joy! For real though, my body pretty much set out to ruin my vacation from work. I got myself sick ON Christmas day, and it was a sick that hung around until New Years Day, as if it were purposefully just trying to fuck with me. So as you can imagine, I was not doing tons of drawing. I did however listen to ALL of the Green Day!

Before and after the Holiday, and The Great Sickness, I actually managed to pull off some con appearances, at Sac-Con and Sac-Anime which went extraordinarily well. I used to do Sacramento Cons a LOT, but honestly I haven't really been there in awhile due to money troubles. Now that TransCat is more of a thing, i could afford to make the trip.Sac-Con was great, as usual. i was reunited with Danielle, whom I'd go as far as to call my Sacramento comics partner now. Sac-anime was a bit of an adventure though! Long story short, I wasn't sure if I was even gonna be able to make it. I had made plans to at least ATTEND, even if it wasn't as an artist. I got on the wait list for Artist Alley way too late, and getting on wasn't looking good. But I was given a phone call, literally the evening before the first day of the con, and suddenly ALL my plans had to change :D to add drama to the experience, I HAD to make it there before noon, or else my table would be forfeit!So what followed that morning was a mad, early morning dash all the way up to Sac, picking up my partner, check into the hotel, drop off our shit, get to the con, get registered (we accidentally went to regular registration first before we realized we had to register AT Artist Alley) and then set up the table. we made it with less than an hour to spare, thank God.

Sac-Anime went extraordinarily well! I almost ran out of TransCat #1. Another trend that seems to be cropping up is that early in the con, people would come by to get #1, and then much later on, come back to get #2 and #3. I was very flattered ^_^This was also my first con with shirts, but I only managed to sell one. I'm glad I didn't make a ton of them, limited release was a good idea.I am signed up to do Sac-Anime again in the summer, Sac-Con again in March, there's a small college convention going on in MV in April which I'm in for, and then THE BIG ONES! Fanime in May, APE in October and GX3 in December!

Monday, December 15, 2014

So this is a sample of a poster I had made specially for Sac-Con, they came out lookin' awful swank.I'm gonna be adding this to the store front tomorrow, but first I need to get some shipping tubes, and figure out how much it would even cost to ship!

Here are the two patterns of shirt I made! These will also be added to the store front, hopefully as early as tomorrow, but again the problem of shipping comes up.I'm so dreadfully new to all of this :DI only have experience shipping books, but now I am becoming a true "captain of industry!" I think this moment comes when the time to spend merchandising your art exceeds the amount of time to spend creating art.

MC Frontalot and MC Lars did a very appropriately titled song on this subject, "Captains of Industry". Check it out on any of THESELEGALPLATFORMS because media is important :3

So Sac-Con was wonderful~!It's been awhile since I've been up there for a show, at least a year, and probably even longer since I've tabled at one. This time was very different indeed. Sacramento has never seen TransCat before! In the space of time between now and my last show there, I managed to produce three TransCat books! I would say the reception was mostly positive. I'm always worried some zealot will happen across my table at some con someday and start preaching to me about how I'm promoting a sick life style and how I'll burn in hell etc etc etc... but it hasn't happened yet, thank god.The main thing that was different, however, was the AMOUNT of stuff I had to bring with me.I've NEVER promoted more than two books at a time.Now, not only are there three TransCat titles out there, but still the two Dave the Punk Rock Cat books. On top of that I'm not a t-shirt and poster maker. All in all, I was carrying three pretty large boxes, plus one smaller box, and a flat box full of posters. I'm just glad I had helpers, is all I'm sayin'. Shout out to Danielle and Lindsay for that! :D Yay!

In the mean time, I am going to make an effort to just get into more shows, period. I'm on the wait list for Sac-Anime in January, so keep yer fingers crossed for me.In the mean time, Issue #3 of TransCat is officially up for sale ion the shop, plus a number of holiday bundles I three together <3 br="">3>

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Knave Murdok makes her triumphant return to the Sacramento Comics Arena to do battle with the THRONGS OF RAGING FANS!

You payed for the whole seat, BUT YOU'LL ONLY NEED THE EDGE!!!

This is actually very exciting to me, because this will be the first time TransCat's made it to a Sacramento show. Sac shows have been, and might always be among my favourites, the fan community up there is so strong, and the convention circuit up there is always so lively. Plus, two of my good friends live up there and I haven't seen 'em in awhile. So hey! Awesome!

not only will this be the first Sacramento show TransCat has gone to, it will be the first show EVER to debut TransCat #3, which I've been frantically trying to finish this whole last month.

For me, working on ANYTHING in between October and December might as well be rolling a boulder uphill. Halloween is a big fat distraction, then comes my birthday and Thanksgiving, and finally, Christmas and New Years. But I swear it will be done! it will be! I am sending it to the printer TO-DAY! Come hell or high water!Just to prove it, here's the cover!I'm proud of this one! well, i'm proud of ALL my covers, but this one is pretty great. Colours by the very talented Nicholas Caesar with some additional shading and effects by always amazing Winnie Tong (whom you might remember from last issue's cover.

Notice the parental advisory warnings?
Yeah, that's not a joke! I'm not bound by any "comics code" or anything, but i'm not one to sling "surprise" adult situations at you ;-)
This comic... gets sexy.
And not like sexy in some base and exploitative way. It's actually a really cute scene where TransCat imagines what a night with Chloie might be like while in girl form ^_^
No nip slips or anything blatant, it's all very suggestive, while still remaining kind of cute and romantic. But suggestive none the less! The warning is there for a reason.

There's another surprise I'd been planning to debut at this show! you might be clued into it if you're a follower of my Tumblr, but here's my OFFICIAL official unveiling!

TRANSCAT T-SHIRTS!

This is just a shot of one of them drying, but they're done now and ready to sell!
I haven't been an avid T-shirt maker in almost 4 years, but good old Winnie convinced me to dust off my old silk screen and even went as far as to buy me some ink and even Speedball squeegee for my birthday!
It would have been ridiculous NOT to make shirts!

They're in limited supply right now, I didn't have time to make tons. But i'll break them out at the con and whatever's left over will go on the website ^__^

Before I depart, i have one last piece of TransCat news to share with you.
When I went to Gaymer X this past summer, I met up with a man from Northwest Press publishing. With his help, I am now distributing TransCat digitally! Check it out!

This is new territory for me, I've never done digital comics before. The closest I ever got to that was an old webcomic I did back in the 2000's. so I really want this to go well, so hopefully we can get issue #2 up there maybe in March or something. So here's what i'm gonna do! I am announcing a contest! Here's what you have to do to enter!

1. Buy The Comic
2. Write A Review on the Website (You'll need a Wordpress Login to do so)
3. Send me an email linking me to your review (chibiquincy@hotmail.com)

I'll pick 3 reviews I really like :D

3rd place gets a free print copy of Issue #1.
2nd Place gets free print copies of #1, #2 and #3.
1st Place gets a free print copies of #1, #2 and #3 and a T-shirt!

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

I feel embarrassed.
I put an update for this up on my Tumblr and on my Facebook but I forgot to put one up HERE :P
So here we are! TransCat Issue #2! Out and Proud!

This is a direct continuation of Issue #1 in which Knave tests her new superpowers out in real life, meets a mysterious young lady who steals her heart, and accidentally catches the attention of her sleepy little town's corrupt-as-hell police force!
All this and more in TransCat Issue #2! YEAH!

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

If you follow me on facebook, or on by BRAND NEW tumblr, then you know I've been talking about THIS comic for awhile now!Yes indeed, this was supposed to be done about two weeks ago. My initial concept was for this to be another one of my pencil adventures... but lord help me, it just did NOT look that good in pencil. So i did what any good cartoonist would do in my situation.. I STALLED!No, I didn't just stall, I also went in and inked it, and you guys know how much I hate inking. But I did it anyway, for YOU... for Christmas~... ^__^ in SEPTEMBER!This was actually an idea I had way back when i was at Gaymer X, an introductory comic or something like that, just to let new readers know who's who and what's what. I kinda start off issue #1 right in the middle of the action without too many tedious introductions, honestly, because I loathe that in comics! I was figuring it would be a lot more fun for the reader to come into the story in the middle and learn the details of each character through dialogue. I want my comic to be like Final Fantasy 7, not Final Fantasy 13.So this comic, which I actually wound up absolutely loving, serves as the buffer zone between interesting plot development, and instant gratification. It introduced a few of the important main characters from the first 4 issues of the book and lays down some ground rules about TransCat's abilities. I also took an opportunity to throw in some education in the last three panels, because waste a good opportunity? I want this comic eventually to become something that trans youth can identify with and feel strengthened by, and in my experience, that's best done when the subject in question isn't purely fantasy. There's gotta be at least a LITTLE truth whipped in there.

So yeah, here we are!

On another TransCat related topic... I have to keep on apologizing for TransCat #2.That was ALSO supposed to be out like, two weeks ago. More like three, actually.I finished it, and tried to make an appointment with my publisher, but then I got terribly sick and had to stay in bed for a week. By the time i was better and trying to reschedule with my publisher, HE had gotten sick and was out of commission for awhile to. By this time it was like, the 17th, and when he got back to work, he had like, a week and a half's worth of work to catch up on, so making an appointment was not easy.I actually saw him today, and he told me he was gonna take my files to a printer today hopefully. But he also told me that yesterday, so... please keep all your fingers crossed for me. I hate being so late on what's only my second issue. I promise you it will be worth it. I don't want to give away too much, but this comic kinda spoils some bits for you anyway :P In this issue, Knave meets her first crush! This meeting also opens up a multi-issue story-line and introduces a concept that becomes a main theme in the story from here on. ^__^Ohhhh I'm so excited to show you guys the rest! :DAnd when I say "multi-issue" I mean, I'm currently penciling issue issue #6 and we're still feeling the effects of issue #2.

I remember watching an interview once with one of the main writers of Star Trek: The Next Generation and he was talking about how when they first started the show, there was kind of an unspoken but understood moratorium on any scripts that involved any kind of need for continuity, but they found it harder and harder to avoid as they ventured in the 3rd season. They resisted it as much as possible, but it was Worf's story that finally tipped the scales. His son, his discommendation from the Klingon Empire, and the power struggle that ensued in the Empire as a result, a power struggle that spilled into one of the movies AND into Deep Space Nine... that made a richer continuity between episodes impossible to avoid. The excuse they gave for avoiding it for so long was they wanted to get the show syndicated as soon as possible, and they worried that fans catching storylines that spanned multiple episodes out of order without context would kill the show. This exact problem would go on to kill the show "Firefly" fifteen years later, a loss that the fans still cannot seem to get over. Can you imagine if that was Star Trek? Can you imagine what an uproar that would have caused? The show that would revitalize the franchise cancelled in its first season? Lord almighty...

Anyway, I was trying to make a point somewhere back there. This aversions towards continuity isn't isolated to Star Trek, I've heard many creators and storytellers extol similar sentiments about the direction they want their stories to go in. Hell, even the guys who make Penny Arcade seem to be allergic to long running stories, and they release 3 to 5 panel strips! Either way, I dunno if it's just my situation and HOW I release my comics, but not only do I have no aversion to serialized storytelling, but it is one of my single favourite challenges to tackle when it comes to writing. A very vain part of me would like to think that it's just because I really do think I learned how to perform that kind of storytelling the RIGHT way (most likely from being such a huge Star Trek geek). Or maybe I just really like trying to put pieces of a story together in complex ways and it will wind up driving my readership totally crazy!! :DI guess we'll see, won't we???

But I digress. I cant apologize enough for the delays. Trust me that when this book finally comes out, it will be a big fat deal.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

YES YES YES!So this took a little longer then issue #1 A lot of that was due to laziness and even more of it was due to depression, but it's HERE! It's FINISHED! Or at least... I'm done inking and formatting it.Gonna take it in to the publisher hopefully tomorrow, maybe a little later.Either way, here's the raw, hand drawn/inked, unedited pages, all lined up in a pretty little row for you guys. This is as much of a teaser as I'm willing to give :P

SINCE there's no upcoming conventions I'm heading to, I have no real way of promoting this new book.I coulda taken it to Sac-Anime but I missed the deadline for Artist Alley. Aside from that, I wasn't even done with it anyway. I got SUPER lazy after Gaymer X and then some stuff happened and I was just sorta blaahhh... about working. you could cal it writer's block, but it was mostly just lethargy, not gonna lie.

BUT! That doesn't mean I'm not gonna promote this ish now that it's done. There may not be shows to go to but i will MAKE something happen. I have a lot of POSSIBLE things up in the air.There's an appearance at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Fransisco I've been trying to coordinate since summer. I also might have another speaking engagement (similar to my event at PFLAG) but I have zero details about that yet.There's also a comic shop owner I know who's been interested in bringing me in for a signing. That again is more of a pipe dream than anything. Either way, if I can make it happen, I'm gonna make it happen! <3 br="">I miss Sacramento. I really wanna go back to Sac-Con and Sac-Anime. Those were always some of my favourite times. I haven't been there since my Dave the Punk rock Cat days! They haven't even SEEN TransCat yet! Oh man, are they even ready?? One can only hope. I'm gonna try and go to the one in December.I also miss Alternative Press Expo. That one's been even longer. I love that one so much but it's so damn expensive to get a table. Even if you register early. Also, you have to do everything with them through snail mail, and that's damned inconvenient. I seriously think TransCat would go over great there though~

Anyway... more updates to come as the book approaches its release date.I wanna try and have it out by this weekend, but we'll see.

Thursday, July 31, 2014

I was hoping to make the Pencil Adventures more of a thing, and in the future I will. I haven't had a lot of spare time to do a new one (nor have I had tons of great ideas for ones either). So instead, I figured I'd showcase a newly finished draft of the cover of TransCat issue #2 instead. The colours on this piece were done my one of my newest partners in crime, Winnie Tong. we met at Fanime, I wanna say three years ago, then we met again totally randomly on OKCupid! How's that for coincidences? Seems like most of my best friendships come about through amazing coincidences.

Anyway,we ALSO tabled together at Gaymer X this year. I have a cute mini photoseries from that con that you can find on my Facebook Fan Page, become a fan if you aren't already.
Sadly, as much as I like the pictures, they don't really do the con as a whole, justice.
In summary, it was one of the best conventions I've ever gone to. A LOT of that had to do with the fact that it was a Gay / Trans / Queer themed nerd convention, and that's just something I've never been to in my life.
Another huge redeeming facotr is that you HAD to be 18 or older to even buy a ticket. So unlike Fanime there weren't a lot of racist/homophobic/transphobic teens wandering the halls, trying to be "edgy" by insulting people. I can't even say how GREAT that was to not have around.
But mostly, just being around all that creative energy, in a non judgmental environment, full of people who not only accepted you for what you were, but never question it, never challenge it, and above all, understand it! That was an amazingly comforting feeling that I can't say I've ever experienced at any convention, or ANYWHERE, ever before.

The last evening was the best. I spent the evening in our hotel room, with my two roommates (one cis woman and one trans woman) they invited two friends over (two more trans women) and I invited one additional friend over (one more trans woman), where we talked, and laughed and played games, drank (they drank, I just had a soda) and essentially just had one of the best nights ever. It was such an accepting and inviting atmosphere, so much so that having to say goodbye to everyone at the end genuinely made me sad. I wish they didn't all live so far away. Oh well, my two roommates I can pretty much see whenever :3

And now comes the bad news! As awesome and cool and wonderful and sensational as Gaymer X was... IT'S IN TROUBLE! I guess there was some trouble with finding to begin with, and then after that there was an issue of a sponsor who I guess backed out of their pledge at the last minute. It resulted in the organizers being left unsure of Gaymer X would even be a thing next year. :/

There's some good news tho~ I guess when news of this broke out, a bunch of other gaming companies responded in kind, hoping to revive the con for 2015.
No news as of yet if there's gonna be a Kickstarter, or an Indie-a-Go-Go or any type of donation system that regular people can donate towards, but rest assured that if *I* hear about it, I'll be posting it either here, or on my Facebook, because this is important to me.

Some other good news on MY end!
While Issue #2 of TransCat is still about a month away, Issue #1 might see it's day in the sun once again. While at Gaymer X I connected with the owner of Northwest Press. I don't wanna get my hopes up too much, but he was VERY engaged by the first TransCat adventure and seems like he might be interested in publishing it. TransCat can ALREADY go all over the world, but this might actually help me get some actual readers... from all over the world ;-)
It's all very exciting, and I really hope it goes through. Once again I'll be updating like CRAZY when I hear for sure!! :D